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Riggs Bank was used as a case study by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
In February 2003, the Subcommittee initiated a followup investigation to evaluate the enforcement and effectiveness of key anti-money laundering provisions of the Patriot Act, using Riggs Bank, a prominent bank that held the accounts of most of the foreign embassies in Washington, as a case study. A report released by Senator Levin’s Subcommittee staff in July 2004, revealed that Riggs Bank maintained a dysfunctional anti-money laundering program and allowed or, at times, actively facilitated suspicious financial activity, using case histories involving Augusto Pinochet [Riggs involved from 1994-2002], the former President of Chile, and Teodoro Obiang [Riggs involved from 1995-2004], the President of Equatorial Guinea. The report detailed serious shortcomings in federal oversight of Riggs Bank, a regulatory failure particularly troubling in light of the potential for criminals and corrupt officials to misuse the U.S. financial system. http://tinyurl.com/385cdj
